This thread is completely off-topic. It's called "it's been half a year since 5.3 came out", not "let's list the pros and cons of p3d and a totally different sim that this topic was not even about".

I'd rather use a mediocre sim that is under active development with an active community, than a good sim that is as close to dead it can possibly get with a community that does nothing but bash other sims.

Not that I find MSFS mediocre or P3D good, but you get the point.

1 hour ago, F737MAX said:

Funny in that it takes only a simple checkbox selection: EA on in P3D to get vastly better* lighting and clouds (*YMMV) and Photogrammetry off in MSFS to avoid the 'melted' buildings (also fixed by having a superfast internet connection).

Neither sim is perfect. Who'd have thunk it?! 🤷‍♂️

My mileage does vary to use your term. I have tried EA On several times but it has three downsides I cannot live with...

1) the VC on some aircraft is extremely dark making it difficult to see it properly.

2) the texture of the clouds becomes far less distinct. The sky is not a deep blue as it should be. It’s a washed out colour and unrealistic.

3) frame rates suffer.

I find with ASP3D + ASCA and EA Off I get the most acceptable depiction of P3D. I can’t pass any comment on MSFS lighting as I don’t own it.

These settings are highly subjective. There’s no right or wrong setting. Just the one that suits the user.

7 hours ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

If people want to criticise P3D I just ignore their comments

Funny, because it appears that LM do the same. It did not end well.

It's exactly this kind of ignorance that led the entire P3D community down the drain. If you had listened and stepped up your game and put some pressure on LM to listen to the community and fix things, there might have been a future for P3D.

To improve and move forward, listening to other people's comments is vital even if you don't like what you hear.

 

1 minute ago, Multisim said:

Funny, because it appears that LM do the same. It did not end well.

It's exactly this kind of ignorance that led the entire P3D community down the drain. If you had listened and stepped up your game and put some pressure on LM to listen to the community and fix things, there might have been a future for P3D.

To improve and move forward, listening to other people's comments is vital even if you don't like what you hear.

I have posted a request for info on the LM website but despite many others doing likewise they chose not to reply. The topic was then locked.

If you feel you can do better be my guest. You obviously know far more than me so let us know how you get on.

42 minutes ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

These settings are highly subjective. There’s no right or wrong setting. Just the one that suits the user.

Precisely. People's preferences are highly subjective.

If someone wants to try EA and mitigate against the dark VC problem, then follow the suggested changes that @BiologicalNanobot has recommended in the hshl shader folder (N.B. create a copy before making any changes).

https://www.prepar3d.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=242877#p242877

@F737MAX, I tried that and it made virtually no difference to the VC on my Xtreme Prototypes Lear 25.

At that point I abandoned further experimentation.

2 hours ago, F737MAX said:

Funny how people are now trying to find the crappiest and most problematic screenshots they can of the other sim.

I didn’t try to find anything, that screenshot above was posted by Ray 🙂 

9 minutes ago, omarsmak30 said:

I didn’t try to find anything, that screenshot above was posted by Ray 🙂 

I think “the other sim” may refer to MSFS given this is the P3D forum. 😉

3 hours ago, F737MAX said:

Funny in that it takes only a simple checkbox selection: EA on in P3D to get vastly better* lighting and clouds (*YMMV) and Photogrammetry off in MSFS to avoid the 'melted' buildings (also fixed by having a superfast internet connection).

Well, I have two 1 gigabit fiber optic connection from two different providers at home, and believe me they are as fast as advertised. No, the melted buildings and bad photogrammetry are still happening and definitely not "fixed"  by  having a " superfast connection". If there's something I'm missing, please do tell. 

 

2 hours ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

My mileage does vary to use your term. I have tried EA On several times but it has three downsides I cannot live with...

1) the VC on some aircraft is extremely dark making it difficult to see it properly.

2) the texture of the clouds becomes far less distinct. The sky is not a deep blue as it should be. It’s a washed out colour and unrealistic.

3) frame rates suffer.

I find with ASP3D + ASCA and EA Off I get the most acceptable depiction of P3D. I can’t pass any comment on MSFS lighting as I don’t own it.

These settings are highly subjective. There’s no right or wrong setting. Just the one that suits the user.

Ray, I use AS+ASCA+EA on and VC off so no stuttering.As far as dark cockpit just turn on the panel lights. Also if you press the \ key your mouse has a flashlight on the pointer in P3D. 

As I stated before the IFly 737NG advanced is built to be used with EA on and the panel isn’t dark. In some ways superior to the NGXn.

5 hours ago, evaamo said:

Well, I have two 1 gigabit fiber optic connection from two different providers at home, and believe me they are as fast as advertised. No, the melted buildings and bad photogrammetry are still happening and definitely not "fixed"  by  having a " superfast connection". If there's something I'm missing, please do tell. 

 

The internet is complicated. You can have a super fast connection in your building, but if somewhere along the route to the server, there is a congestion, it can affect you. You can try switching servers in MSFS to see if that fixes the problem. Using a VPN when you have this type of problem may also help as a VPN can force an entirely different route, depending on the country you choose with your VPN.

Alternatively, you can try manual caching the area you have problems with. I would also set a rolling cache, as caching in general will reduce MSFS’s reliance on your internet connection.

The last option is to just turn off photogrammetry and use autogen,  Maybe wait a week or two weeks to try photogrammetry again for the area you are having problems with.

 

Edited August 29, 20223 yr by abrams_tank

7 hours ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

These settings are highly subjective. There’s no right or wrong setting. Just the one that suits the user.

That is the truest statement yet made and one everyone should bear in mind.

PCs are individuals, like their owners, that is why some have no CTDs, for example, and others do.

 

8 hours ago, Multisim said:

you get the point

Yes, we all get the point you are repeatingly trying to make. But not all of us are buying it.

56 minutes ago, abrams_tank said:

The internet is complicated.

I agree with that, and exactly that might be the best argument against streaming data. Even if one can ensure everything is good to go on one's own side of the vital connection, there are just too many other factors that might ruin it anyway.

1 hour ago, d.tsakiris said:

I agree with that, and exactly that might be the best argument against streaming data. Even if one can ensure everything is good to go on one's own side of the vital connection, there are just too many other factors that might ruin it anyway.

I disagree with you. I have used MSFS for 2 years and the photogrammetry has run fine for me over the last 2 years. People with bad photogrammetry are the extreme minority.  And like I said, there are ways to overcome the photogrammetry issues by using manual cache and rolling cache for areas you frequently fly in.

I also don’t have to store petrabytes of data for the entire world. Yes, you read that right, petrabytes to store the entire world. MSFS in total, takes up less than 200 GB on my hard drive.  I also don’t have to buy an extra hard drive just to store ortho, which further saves me money.

Edited August 29, 20223 yr by abrams_tank

7 hours ago, Patco Lch said:

Ray, I use AS+ASCA+EA on and VC off so no stuttering.As far as dark cockpit just turn on the panel lights. Also if you press the \ key your mouse has a flashlight on the pointer in P3D. 

As I stated before the IFly 737NG advanced is built to be used with EA on and the panel isn’t dark. In some ways superior to the NGXn.

I don’t follow “VC off”. VC is the virtual cockpit. How and why do you turn that off?

I always turn panel lights on. Still too dark. I would prefer not to have to use the mouse as a torch pointer.

Even if the VC problem was fixed it still leave the clouds and sky colour as unacceptable to me.

I’m happy with the PMDG panel with EA off. I have a 30Hz 4K monitor so with VSync enabled the fps remain at a smooth 30 except at the busiest of airports.